Ezekiel 7
OUTLINE:
I. \\#Eze 1:1-23:49\\ Before the Siege (c.593-587)
A. \\#Eze 1:1-3:15\\ The First Message
1. \\#1:1-28\\ God
a. \\#1-3\\ The Setting
b. \\#4-28\\ The Glory of the Lord
c. \\#4\\ The Cloud
d. \\#5-14\\ The Four Living Creatures
e. \\#15-21\\ The Four Wheels
f. \\#22-25\\ The Firmament
g. \\#26-28\\ The One Above
h. \\#28\\ Ezekiel’s Reaction
2. \\#2:1-3:15\\ The Commission of Ezekiel
a. \\#2:1-2\\ God’s Strengthening
b. \\#2:3-3:15\\ God’s Calling
(1) \\#2:3-5\\ Go to God’s People
(2) \\#2:6-3:3\\ Go with God’s Words
(3) \\#3:4-11\\ Go with God’s Equipping
(4) \\#3:12-15\\ Go with God’s Spirit
B. \\#Eze 3:16-7:27\\ The Second Message
1. \\#3:16-21\\ Go as God’s Watchman
2. \\#3:22-3:27\\ Hardships for Ezekiel
a. \\#3:22-24\\ A Shift in Location
b. \\#3:24-27\\ Three Commands Given
3. \\#4:1-5:17\\ Signs of Jerusalem’s Siege
a. \\#4:1-3\\ A Besieged City
b. \\#4:4-8\\ A Sinful City
c. \\#4:9-17\\ A Hungry City
d. \\#5:1-17\\ A Defeated City
4. \\#6:1-14\\ Preach to the Mountains and Stomp
a. \\#6:1-7\\ God’s Judgment
b. \\#6:8-10\\ God’s Mercy
c. \\#6:11-14\\ Ezekiel’s Demonstration
5. \\#7:1-27\\ Preach to the Land and Make A Chain
a. \\#1-15\\ The End Is Come
b. \\#7:16-22\\ "But those that escape"
c. \\#7:23-27\\ Ezekiel’s Demonstration
\\#Eze 3:16-7:27\\ The Second Message, Preach to the Land and Make A
Chain
I. \\#1-15\\ The End Is Come
A. Throughout this section, God emphasized that it was the
time for judgment.
Eze 7:2 …An end, the end is come upon the four
corners of the land.
Eze 7:3 Now is the end come upon thee….
Eze 7:5 …An evil, an only evil, behold, is
come.
Eze 7:6 An end is come, the end is come: it
watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.
Eze 7:7 The morning is come unto thee, O thou
that dwellest in the land: the time is come,
the day of trouble is near….
Eze 7:8 Now will I shortly….
Eze 7:10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the
morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed,
pride hath budded.
Eze 7:12 The time is come, the day draweth
near….
B. \\#10\\ The imminence of the judgment is compared to the
morning breaking and the flower budding.
1. It is sad that two such beautiful events would describe
the terrible judgment that was so shortly to come.
2. Perhaps God selected them because they come and cannot
be stopped.
3. Or perhaps God selected them because they come without
much notice.
C. \\#4\\ "mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have
pity"
1. This phrase was first used in \\#5:11\\ but will be
repeated \\#7:4, 7:9, 8:18, 9:10\\.
2. It means God will not show Israel any mercy.
3. The "wall of iron" will remain between Israel and God
\\#Eze 4:3\\.
D. \\#5\\ "only evil" - What God was sending against Israel
had no redeeming quality to it at all. It was only for
evil to be accomplished on Israel.
E. \\#13\\ "the seller shall not return… although… yet alive"
1. God had already prophesied that He would scatter "the
whole remnant… into all the winds" \\#Eze 5:10\\.
2. He meant it.
3. "…the whole multitude… shall not return"
F. \\#15\\ "The sword… pestilence… famine" will devour
the people. This refers to those who will die, but the
next verses describe those that will live.
II. \\#7:16-22\\ "But those that escape" - This section describes
the ones who lived through the siege.
A. \\#16\\ "like doves of the valleys" - Wild doves must hide
themselves to survive in the fields.
B. "mourning" - There will be no celebration from them but
mourning, yet not the productive mourning of repentance.
Rather, they shall mourn their losses.
C. \\#17\\ "hands shall be feeble… knees shall be weak" - The
losses will leave them without strength.
D. \\#18\\ gird… with sackcloth… horror… cover them…
shame… upon all faces… baldness upon all their heads"
1. These are the things the people will do and experience
as outward manifestations of their inward sorrow.
2. While the people are willing to outwardly demonstrate how
distraught they are,nowhere does God say the people
repented toward Him.
E. \\#19\\ "cast their silver in the streets" - It is hard to
believe that God meant this literally for most—even at this
depth of sorrow and defeat—would not cast away their silver;
but they will come to realize it "shall not be able to
deliver them."
F. \\#20-22\\ "As for the beauty of his ornament"
1. \\#20\\ Whose ornament? The verse speaks of "his" but
does not tell us whose ornament is being discussed. It
would seem that the same one whose ornament is being
spoken of is the "he" who set it in majesty. While there
is no way to prove it, it seems most likely that the
"he" is God.
2. What ornament? Neither does the text tell us what
ornament is being spoken of, but the wicked (probably the
Jews) have "made… images of their abomination and
detestable things" inside of it. That makes it sound
like a holy place, perhaps God’s temple.
3. While there is no consensus, it seems to me that God was
speaking of His temple.
a. It was His most beautiful worldly ornament.
b. It had been filled with wicked abominations.
c. And God was about to "set it far from them," i.e.
remove it from them and them from it.
4. \\#21\\ Even more, God was about "to give it into the
hands of strangers" - God was giving the land, the
people, and even what was left of the temple to the
Babylonians.
a. It would be their "prey" and "spoil."
b. And while they had it, they would "pollute it."
(1) Sadly, they could hardly pollute it any worse
than the Jews had done.
(2) \\#22\\ God called it "my secret place."
5. \\#22\\ God would turn his "face" from "them," His people.
6. And "robbers" would enter into His "secret place," the
temple, and "defile it."
7. It is also interesting that the topic of God’s temple will
be discussed in the next chapter.
III. \\#7:23-27\\ Ezekiel’s Demonstration
A. \\#23\\ "Make a chain" - Ezekiel was to make a chain. We are
not told what he was to do with it.
1. Is it possible that he was to make the chain that was to
bind him?
Eze 3:25 But thou, O son of man, behold, they
shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee
with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:
2. It is possible that Ezekiel was still in the plain
\\#Eze 3:22\\ receiving all of these instructions at one
time and had not actually begun to do any of them as of
yet.
3. When he returned, perhaps he was to make the chain that
would bind him to illustrate that Israel had made the
chain of sin that would bind them.
4. "for the land is full of bloody crimes" - The chain
represented violence and crimes the people had committed
against one another.
B. \\#24-27\\ The Message - "Wherefore" - Because of the
violence, God would do the following:
1. \\#24\\ "bring the worst of the heathen" - God hand-picked
the nation that would conquer Israel, the Babylonians,
because of their cruelty and evil.
2. "they shall possess their houses" - Another reference to
Israel being removed and new hosts living in the land.
3. "pomp… to cease" - Israel’s ceremonial splendor will be
removed.
4. "their holy places shall be defiled" - "places." in the
plural would have to be a reference to Israel’s false
worship as Israel was commanded by God to have only ONE
holy place, the temple.
5. \\#25\\ "Destruction cometh" - This prophecy was repeated
often.
6. "they shall seek peace… none" - Long after Israel
desired their destruction to stop, it would continue.
7. \\#26\\ As in all such times, there will be ample
"mischief" and "rumor."
8. "they shall seek a vision" - The people will want to hear
from God but the "law" and "counsel" of the Lord will be
absent.
9. \\#27\\ "The king shall mourn" - There will be weeping and
fasting but to no avail.
10. "I will do unto them after their way" - God will let them
have what they have wanted, gods which do not help or
answer.
11. "they shall know that I am the Lord." - Whether they
liked it or not, they would know that God is God because
His Word would have come to pass.
<Outline
Index> <Close Window>
